1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to voting systems and, more specifically, to an integrated ballot assembly.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Over the years, various voting systems have been devised in order to present the available choices to the voter, to allow the voter to mark the ballot with his ore her vote, and to allow the voting administrators to read and tabulate the votes.
Voting systems generally provide each voter with a ballot that is used to record his or her choices. The ballot is often provided in the form of a ballot card that is marked in some fashion and suitable for machine reading.
Voting is often associated with governmental elections, but voting systems can be used in all variety of venues—from food selection to test taking. As a food selection example, a fast food restaurant could use a voting system to concisely present food and beverage options to its customers, and the customers could use the voting system to communicate their desired items without error. As a test example, schools often give so-called “multiple choice” tests where the students mark their choices on what is essentially a ballot card.
FIG. 1, for example, shows a ballot card 110a that has a number of voting response locations 111a that can be manipulated by the voter and then read by a machine (not shown). Here, the ballot card contains a plurality of numbered rows, each numbered row has five choices A, B, C, D and E, and the voter uses an ordinary pencil 115a to make a mark 112a in the desired voting response location 111a. 
Any variety of shapes or indicia are possible. FIG. 2, for example, shows an alternative ballot card 110b wherein the voter makes marks 112b on the surface of the ballot card in voting response locations 111b that are circular, rather than rectangular.
FIG. 3 shows another ballot where the voter marks the ballot by using a stylus 115c to punch out a pre-perforated disk 111c and leave behind a machine readable aperture 112c. 
In many voting systems, a short description of each choice is printed directly on the ballot card adjacent to a single-column of corresponding voting response locations that usually run along an edge of the voting card. The descriptions are usually terse (e.g. the candidates' names, the neutral title of a proposition, etc. . . . ) due to the limited amount of space on the ballot card. Sometimes the back side of the ballot card contains another set of descriptions adjacent to another column of voting response locations that run along the opposite edge of the ballot card. Because of the single-column nature of this system, voters are often provided with numerous ballot cards to accommodate all of the candidates and/or issues that are available for their consideration.
Various ballot systems have used separable or tear-off response cards, but they have generally been limited to just one or two voting columns.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,656 to Fielder, for example, discloses a system with a response card 12 and a tear-off section 14 that are separable via a perforation 20. Here, however, the response card has two voting columns. In particular, the response card 12 itself contains an information column 26 that is located next to a voting column 25 on the right edge of the response card 12. In addition, the tear-off section 14 contains an information column 28, and the response card 12 has another voting column 24 located adjacent to the tear-off section 14, along the perforation 20.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,457,643 to Way also discloses a ballot paper 1 with an option section 2 (with options presented in a random order) and a response section 3 that is separable from the option section 2 via a perforation 4. However, the option section 2 is a single sheet that can only carry a limited number of options, and the response section 3 only has a single column for voting.
Other ballot systems have been designed to work with ballots having three or more voting columns but all of the systems known to the inventor have been designed to work with a separate ballot card, and they have generally been overly complicated to manufacture and to use:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,201,038 to Harris discloses several embodiments. This patent relates historically to the “Vote-O-Matic” machines used in the 2000 presidential election in Florida. The embodiment of FIGS. 1-6 is comparable to the Stephens et al. device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,298 in that it features a plurality of hinged leaves 1 that are laterally spaced from one another at their hinged edges so that the user can vote in between the adjacent leaves. The embodiments of FIGS. 9-15 include a plurality of leaves (e.g. 40, 41, 43, and 43) that are each narrower than the one above it and that are attached to one another and to an apertured template sheet 2 by staples 44, or directly to the base 7. However, in all of the Harris embodiments, a ballot is held within a compartment in a large base, and the user has to push a stylus through a template and the base in order to punch the separate ballot that is located beneath the template and/or base.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,294,424 to Mathews discloses a voting system that is also designed for use with underlying ballot card (“tally sheet”) 16. As shown, the system includes a plurality of vertically stacked cards 10, 12, 14 that are equal in size and bound to the underlying ballot card 16 with staples 20. Each of the stacked cards 10, 14, 14 include labeled columns of perforations (e.g. 24a, 24b, 24c, and 24d on card 10 and 26a, 26b, 26c, and 26d on card 12) that vary in lateral position. In use, the voter guides a stylus 33 through a perforation to punch out a corresponding element 27 of the ballot card 16. When the voter has completed the top card 10, he folds it out of the way as shown in FIG. 3, and then continues. The Mathews system allows for multiple columns, but is somewhat confusing because all of the lower cards must contain perforations that are there only to permit the stylus to pass all the way through to the ballot card 16 when making a choice indicated on an upper card.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,177 to Spinner et al. discloses another voting system that uses a plurality of equal sized information cards (“master information cards”) 56 having offset perforations 100 which, as best explained at col. 3, lines 46-75, are used in succession and then dropped away in order to mark a single punch card 180.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,453 to Parks et al., for example, discloses a system that uses a plurality of equal-sized information cards 70a, 70b, 70c with columnar slots 72 that vary in lateral position for use in punching a ballot card 10 having a corresponding plurality of voting columns 12. As perhaps best disclosed at col. 4, lines 33-42, the Parks et al. system is complicated to use in that the voter must expose the lower-most information card 70a nearest the ballot card 10 by rotating all of the other information cards away from the ballot card 10, and then must completely tear away the first information card 70a in order to rotate the next information card 70b adjacent to the ballot card 10.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,485,298 to Stephens et al. discloses a vote recording apparatus 17 for marking a ballot 18 having multiple voting columns. The apparatus 17 includes a plurality of equal-sized “voting information leaves” 34 that are pivotally arranged like book pages that are laterally spaced apart from one another where they are hinged. A masking card 46 defines a pattern of available apertures within the vertical spacing between the voting information leaves. The '298 apparatus provides for multiple voting columns, but it is overly complicated and subject to potential misalignment.
It is desirable to allow a voter to study the issues and mark his or her ballot for mail-in purposes, or in advance of taking his or her ballot card to the polling place. It is desirable to enable the voter to keep a record of his or her votes. It is desirable to capture the voter's votes on a single card, rather than on several cards.
The known voting systems that use simple ballots made primarily of paper are cost effective, but do not permit a sufficient number of votes to be made on a single ballot card. The known voting systems that provide for voting within multiple columns are generally very complicated systems that require expensive and unwieldy apparatus to align voting information with separate ballot cards via templates and the like, are prone to error, and are generally unsuitable for use in both a physical polling situation and for or absentee voting by mail.
There remains a need for an integrated ballot assembly that is cost effective, simple to use, provides the voter with a record of his or her votes, and is suitable for both polling place and absentee voting. Such a ballot assembly may also have utility in other situations such as making food and beverage choices in a fast food restaurant.